WORDS OF AWARENESS AND TRANSFORMATION

These are some of my favorite passages in “In the Awakening Season” by Matthew Mumber.

  

DESTINY

Breathe with me,

this ordinary day,

leaf-lined dirt path, downhill,

right next to home. 

 

Take one step

then another, without direction,

who knows if we will ever

find our way back.

 

Just imagine if

each second had a reason

every created thing played its part

nothing was ever wasted.

 

Even those missteps

that twist our limbs,

roots of forgiveness.

 

Imagine each and every step

a great allowing.

 

  

THIS PRECIOUS LIFE

Some say

no one really lives his own life,

true face covered by a mask,

 

stuck tight and fashioned by a series

of random voices,

interactions,

childhood dreams of flying, long lost,

adult desires for comfort superficially gained,

 

mismatched pieces welded sequentially over time,

firmly, to the fragile, baby skin

of who we really are.

 

Some say

all paths lead

to these false lives discarded,

rain-soaked clothes

hanging against

a damp, shadowed stone wall.

 

Standing here, midlife,

children grown and mostly gone,

I let the cold, winter air in.

CONNECTED

—Day two of a five-day, silent retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Mid-morning, after dawn meditation,

They tells us,

Go for a mindful walk,

enjoy nature.

 

Most others walk

then sit near him—

our revered teacher.

 

I settle into a corner of an open field,

grass sleeping, mid-fall.

The mottled sunlight

highlights

a single autumn leaf

quaking and turning and

rising and falling with

an imperceptible wind,

somehow suspended, eye level,

mid-air, just to the side of me,

a maple tree branch above, leaf-strewn earth below.

My closer inspection reveals

an invisible spider thread

thinly attached to the stem.

 

Mesmerized,

I sit until the distant bell calls me back.

 

The next day

after morning meditation,

the whole group files out,

mindfully walking along

a different dirt path in the woods;

just above their heads

I see

a single leaf suspended.

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